Quiet Aus cyclone season but be ready: BOM

Australia has had one of the quietest starts to a tropical cyclone seasons in 50 years, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says.

But a BOM climate expert warns people in northern Australia to be ready for when a cyclone inevitably crosses the coast.

We are 90 days into the 2014/15 cyclone season, which began on November 1, with no cyclone activity on the mainland.

Only two cyclones have occurred in the Australian region and only one - category one Kate, which passed by the Cocos Islands on Christmas Day - directly affected a populated area.

Since 1964/65, the first cyclone of the season crossed the coast later than January 29 only five times.

The latest was on March 3, 1969, when Cyclone Audrey crossed the northern Top End coast.

The earliest was on November 21, 1973, when Cyclone Ines affected the remote west Kimberley coast.

BOM climate prediction service manager Dr Andrew Watkins says the bureau forecast a below-average cyclone season because of warm sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean that neared El Nino levels late in 2014.

"When the Pacific Ocean is on the warm side, it tends to mean the warmer temperatures are away from Australia and the weather that tends to help tropical cyclone development is away from Australia as well," he said.

But Dr Watkins warned the season is entering its traditionally more active phase.

"You can't sit back and relax in any tropical cyclone season. It's still important to make sure that you are prepared," he said.

"There has never been a season when a tropical cyclone hasn't crossed the coast.

"There is a lot of the season to go and we're just into the more active time."

The official cyclone season ends on April 30.